24.3 Purposes and Uses

Most student fees have specific purposes that govern their assessment and use. Student fees should be managed and accounted for in a manner that will reflect the proper usage of these fees. The business purpose and usage of the various student fees will be discussed below.

24.3.1 Mandatory Student Fees

Student activity fees, Technology fees, and the Special Institutional Fee are the three basic mandatory fees charged by all “teaching” institutions. The BOR Central Office and the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography do not charge student fees.

Other student service related mandatory fees charged by most institutions include health fees, athletic fees and transportation fees. Many institutions also charge facility fees which are used to support rental/lease payments on Public Private Venture (PPV) projects. In the event that any such fee is elective rather than mandatory, the process in Section 24.2 related to mandatory fees shall not apply.

Institutions should refer to Section 7.3.4.2 of the BOR Policy Manual for guidance on waivers of mandatory fees.

Student Activity Fees

Student activity fees are collected for the purpose of supporting programs and services affecting all aspects of student life. Correspondingly, the expenditure of these fees should be student centered with the students being the primary participants or beneficiaries.

As with all institutional funds, USG policies and procedures must be considered when expenditures are made from student activity funds. Budgets allocated to student organizations and expended under the authority of the student group represent a shared responsibility between institutional officers, the respective student group and the student fee committee. Thus, it is the responsibility of these groups to ensure that expenditures made are an appropriate use of student activity funds in line with applicable USG policies and procedures.

Student activity fee revenues may be used to support a broad spectrum of student related services, most commonly in the areas of social and entertainment activities, intramural sports, student publications and student government associations. While it is not the intent of this section to provide an exhaustive list of USG rules and regulations for expenditures, the following guidance is provided on expenditures of student activity fees.

If a specific Public Private Venture project is funded with a student activity fee, those fees should be designated to support project costs, such as lease payments and expenses for project operations. See section on Facility Fees below.

Appropriate expenditures of Student Activity fees would include:

Hiring and paying travel for performers- Meals and travel expenses are subject to per-diem and non-employee travel regulations (Section 19.9). If all costs of performing group, including travel expenses, are included as part of a lump-sum contract, travel regulations would not apply.

Consultant expenses

Prizes/awards from raffles-Participation in raffle must be available to all students. Raffles/lotteries may be lawfully conducted without a license if participants are allowed to enter at no cost. For these events, individual prizes must be de minimis in value (not to exceed $100). If licenses are obtained and raffle tickets are sold, gifts are limited to funds collected in raffle.

Food and refreshments for student group events-Appropriate if event is open to all students within specific identifiable group.

Promotional Items-Associated with promotional events for students, such as student recruitment. Acceptable items would be T-shirts, mugs, plaques, click drives, etc. Individual value should not exceed $ 50. Cash awards are strongly discouraged. The institution may be subject to additional prohibitions on promotional items resulting from athletic conference regulations.

Performance Based Awards-Considered acceptable if student has provided some service and/or performed some function to receive award (e.g., writing contests, dance contests, and various student skills competitions). Award amounts may vary based on value of service/performance, not to exceed $ 500.

Staff salaries and benefits-Appropriate if included in budget as reviewed by student fee advisory committee.

Employee travel (including student employees)-Appropriate, but subject to State travel regulations (Section 4). For student employees, the institution will have to determine if student employee travel is related to whether the student in question is traveling as a student or an employee to determine which section of travel regulations apply.

Lease payments for Public Private Ventures if fee was assessed to fund service “rental” payments. See section on Facility fees.

Other operating costs-Normal supply, maintenance and utility costs.

Student Activity fees should not be expended on the following:

Donations-Except where proceeds of fund-raiser go directly for that purpose.

Scholarships- Prohibited unless based on some performance measure or service requirement. Performance measures would require some academic or student activity skill to be displayed (e.g., athletics, music, literary, math, etc.). Simply being an enrolled student would not qualify as a performance measure.

Tips-Unless covered by State travel guidelines or service contract.

Faculty salaries and benefits-Student activity fees should not be used to directly fund instructional costs of credit hour courses.

Intercollegiate Athletic program costs-Normally these costs should be paid from Athletic fees. Possible exceptions could be for support groups, such as dance teams, club sports or cheerleaders, if included in the budget as reviewed by the student fee advisory committee.

Student employee recognition luncheons/meals-Not allowable if provided for an individual or a specific group. Student employees may receive food if partaking in an event open to all students and student employees are at function as a “student”. See bullet item 4 under Allowable Uses.

Technology Fees

Technology fees are charged by all “teaching” institutions. The BOR Central Office and the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography do not charge technology fees. Financial accounting for technology fees is addressed is Section 2.9 of this Manual.

Authorized Usage

There are two basic principles governing use of student technology fees:

Student technology fees should be used to support and supplement normal levels of technology spending. Institutions should be able to provide evidence that overall institution technology expenditures clearly reflect that expenditures based upon fee revenues are above and beyond normal levels.

The focus of student technology fees should be on technology related to either academic outcomes or instructional objectives. Distinctions should be drawn between expenditures for administrative applications or scientific and laboratory equipment, and instructional technology. Technology fee revenues should be used for the primary benefit of students by:

Directing expenses to assist students in meeting educational objectives of their academic programs;

Ensuring that there are sufficient campus software licenses, so that students have easy access to “technological” tools needed in their chosen disciplines;

Ensuring that “computer” labs used by students are adequately equipped and have sufficient network bandwidth and appropriate internet access;

Providing training for students in the use of computing and networking resources, when needed. Generally faculty and staff training should be paid for from general operating funds, but faculty and staff may avail themselves of student training sessions if space permits.

Leveraging with other funds to yield greater resources for students; (Technology fee revenues may be combined with another fund source(s) to make purchases that will enhance technological resources provided to students).

Providing new staffing only when it will clearly add documented value for students. Under no circumstances can technology fees be used to fund existing positions that would otherwise be cut from an operational budget, nor should fees be used to fund general computing and networking positions that have a significant administrative or research support component.

Generally technology fees should not be used to acquire general supplies or software or hardware products for faculty use. General operating funds should be used for these purposes, unless there is a demonstrated and direct value to students which would justify use of technology fees.

Also, technology fees should not be used to purchase technological resources that will be used for administration purposes. System hardware, software, and other related costs that do not have a direct impact on academic outcomes and/or instructional objectives should be paid from general operating funds.

Special Institutional Fee

This is a general purpose fee charged system-wide by the Board of Regents at all “teaching” institutions. This fee was established in 2009 (BOR Minutes, June 2009) to ensure continued academic excellence during times of reductions in State funding.

Authorized Usage

Since this is a general purpose fee, institutions may use it to support any level of operations that would be appropriate for any educational and general fund source.

Athletic Fees

Athletic fees are collected for the purpose of funding USG institutions intercollegiate athletic programs. Athletic fees charges vary by institution depending of the number of intercollegiate sports offered and conference and association affiliations.

Authorized Usage

The management of Athletic programs is addressed in Section 4.5 of the BOR Policy Manual. The primary purpose of athletic fees should be to provide scholarships for student athletes, fund athletic staff salaries and operating expenses. For institutions which have Athletic Associations, portions or all of the athletic fees are transferred to the related Athletic Associations to supplement funding of athletic scholarships and related expenses.

Health Fees

Health fees are collected to provide health services for students. Health services offered by institutions vary depending on the size of the institution and the planned use of the fees.

Authorized Usage

Generally health fees are used to support costs of campus health centers. In some instances, health fees cover most, if not all, costs of services provided, however, there are instances where the health fee is supplemented by voluntary fees for service which are paid by students for desired clinical services outside of the scope of the mandatory health fee.

Transportation/Parking Fees

Transportation fees at some institutions are charged to provide students access to an institution’s transit system, while at others, this fee may be identified as a parking fee to provide access to campus parking for students.

Authorized Usage

Transportation and parking are generally managed as auxiliary enterprises and the student fees associated with those activities should be used to support those auxiliary functions. Section 15 of this manual provides guidance on the expenditure of auxiliary enterprise funds.

If a specific Public Private Venture transportation/parking project is funded with a mandatory student fee, those fees should be designated to support that project’s lease payments and other required project costs. See Facility Fees below.

Facility Fees

Facility fees are generally charged in conjunction with Public Private Venture (PPV) projects whereby students are assessed a fee to fund the cost of operations and service capital lease payments on a specific facility, such as a housing unit, food service operation, parking deck, student centers, etc.

Facility fees should typically be charged to students who have access to the facility constructed. Therefore, there will likely be instances where these fees should only be assessed to a certain segment of students. For example, assessing a facility fee to students who do not have access to the facility might not be an appropriate or prudent decision. Section 7.3.4.2 of the BOR Policy Manual provides guidance on mandatory fee waivers. Also, if there are any questions about the students to be charged or served by a fee funded facility, please contact the Office of Fiscal Affairs and the Office of Real Estate and Facilities.

Authorized Usage

Facility fees should be used to pay base rent, additional rents, and operational costs on the project for which the fee was assessed. Base rent covers the principal and interest on capital lease debt. Additional rent is the renewal and replacement reserve that is maintained by the foundation’s trustee for repairs and renovation as needed to keep facility in operation. Operational costs should be limited to costs directly related to the project, such as maintenance, utilities, supplies and personnel.

Historically, the foundation sponsored PPV projects supported by facility fees are designed to generate a 1%-5% operating (coverage ratio) margin on a yearly basis. Georgia Higher Education Facilities Authority (GHEFA) funded projects are also developed with very tight margins. The operating margin is effectively the excess earnings generated from revenues after disbursements for rental payments and operating costs. Institutions are required to use this operating margin to fund a capital debt service reserve which will be available to cover project costs in the event revenue of shortfalls. Institutions are not allowed to spend any excess earnings from a project until capital debt service reserve requirements are met.

For all PPV projects, upon meeting capital debt service reserve requirements, an institution may spend excess yearly earnings on the project or related projects in the specific business operation or in the auxiliary unit where the reserves were accumulated. After appropriate reserves are attained, institutions are encouraged to consider reducing fees to a point where the profitability margin is minimal in order to pass some cost savings back to the students.

At the point in time when reserves are sufficient to retire remaining lease payments, the fee associated with a particular project should be reduced or terminated. If the fee has an operational component, the fee should be brought back to the BOR for reduction and repurposing.

24.3.2 Elective Student Fees

Elective fees, unlike mandatory fees, generally only apply selectively to students based on the purpose of the fee(s). Section 7.3.2.2 of the BOR Policy Manual provides that institution presidents are authorized to approve elective fees. However, the Policy Manual provides following exception to presidential approval for elective fees:
“any fee or special charge that is required to be paid by all fulltime, undergraduate students at the institution or by all undergraduate students in a specific degree program, with the exception of specific course fees for supplementary costs, shall be approved by the Board (BoR Minutes, January 2010).”

The most common types of elective fees are housing fees, food service fees and course fees.

Housing Fees

Housing fees are paid by students to live in institutional residential housing facilities. Housing fees are approved each year by the president.

Authorized Usage

Housing fees are recorded as rental income in auxiliary program revenues and used to support the operational costs of the housing enterprise. Section 15 of this manual provides more specific guidance on expenditures of auxiliary enterprise funds.

Housing fees associated with PPV projects should be used to service the lease payments and cover operational costs. See section on Facility fees above for discussion on appropriate profitability margins and reserves.

Food Service Fees

Food service fees are paid by students who choose an institutional food service meal plan. These fees are approved by the president each year, with the exception of food service fees that are charged to all undergraduate students, which must be approved by the Board.

Authorized Usage

As with housing fees, food service fees are recorded as auxiliary fund revenues and support the operational costs on the food service enterprise as outlined in Section 15.
Food service fees associated with PPV projects should be used to service the lease payment on the related projects. See section on Facility fees above.

Course Fees

Course fees are assessed to students enrolled in specific courses.

Authorized Usage

Course fees as defined in the BOR Policy Manual may be charged “to cover supplementary costs for specific courses, such as art materials, course packets/kits, software/videos, and special equipment.”

Since Course fees are only intended to be a supplementary revenue source to offset the costs of instructional course materials, institutions should set these fees to cover actual fee usage. If course fees exceed the cost of course materials, the fee should be reduced.

Other Miscellaneous Fees

There are numerous other miscellaneous fees that institutions may charge depending on needs and the type of services provided. Some examples would be application fees, graduation fees, and transcript fees.

Authorized Usage

In general, miscellaneous fees are charged for specific purposes and should be used to support the services charged. For example, application fees should be used to support the processing of applications.